DETAILS

There’s a $10 parking fee to park in Torrey Pines lots. The Saturday events, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., are free to the public. For more information, go to sdnhm.org/bioblitz.

TORREY PINES  More than 50 scientists from throughout California will converge on Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve on Friday and Saturday for a 24-hour inventory of plants, insects, mammals, birds, snakes and other forms of life there.

The count, called BioBlitz, is spearheaded by the San Diego Natural History Museum. The public is invited to join the scientists Saturday at a free all-day event that will feature educational activities, as well as guided hikes.

San Diego County is considered the most biodiverse county in the lower 48 states because of the large number of species found here.

“More diversity is a good thing because it creates an ecosystem that provides food, filters our water, improves air quality,” said Dr. Michael Wall, director of the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias at the San Diego Natural History Museum and main organizer of the local BioBlitz.

This is the third year the museum has conducted a BioBlitz event in the county. The first, held in 2008 in Balboa Park, documented more than 1,000 species. The second, held last year at Mission Trails Regional Park, documented 1,193 species, including 529 insects, 332 plants and 101 birds.

The first BioBlitz was conducted in 1996 in Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. The term was coined by naturalist Susan Rudy of the National Park Service during that event, which inspired other organizations worldwide to conduct their own blitzes.

The scientists will begin their inventories around 3 p.m. Friday, finishing about 3 p.m. Saturday.

“Plants are there day and night, so the plant people generally don’t stick around overnight,” Wall said. “But for entomology (insect) people, mammal people and reptile people, the night is our most productive time to collect.”

Matt Graham, a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will participate in his third BioBlitz. Graham grew up in Escondido and studies giant hairy scorpions.

He’ll be most active in his search during the night, because scorpions are nocturnal.

“Unlike most animals, scorpions glow under ultraviolet light,” Graham said. “If you have a black light and shine it on a scorpion, they light up bright green, and you can see them from 30 to 50 feet away.”

Dr. Doug Yanega, collection manager and senior museum scientist at UC Riverside’s Entomology Research Museum, has participated in several 24-hour BioBlitz events in California. Yanega points out that the insect collectors “can only get the tip of the iceberg.”

“Any given square mile of the planet has from 1,000 to 5,000 different insects,” he said. “Say we found 500 species of insects in Balboa Park. Well, those 500 species are probably only 10 percent of what’s actually there. And of those 500 species, 50 don’t even have names.”

Philip Unitt, curator of the department of birds and mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum, expects Torrey Pines’ BioBlitz will find more bird species than at Mission Trails last year.

“We have some 500 species of birds in San Diego County,” Unitt said. “The BioBlitz is an opportunity to highlight how even a relatively small area can have impressive diversity.”

The mammal experts will use some folding aluminum box traps, he added, and also will deploy motion-trigger cameras that might pick up animals such as skunks, coyotes and bobcats.

Some added fun for participants is the element of competition in the final counts.

“It’s hard for anyone to compete with insects because they’re so diverse,” Wall said. “But within insects, there’s definitely competition. The top two contenders are beetles versus the butterflies and moths.”

“I saw that Mission Trails had over 1,000 species, and I’m hoping we can top that,” said Diane Greening, senior park aide/interpreter at Torrey Pines. “We have more habitats than Mission Trails since we’re on the coast.”

Education activity stations will be set up in front of the park’s lodge headquarters. Besides getting an up-close look at some pet snakes and specimens the scientists find, children can craft a leaf bug creature and test mammal knowledge through a “Scat and Track” game, among other activities.